MR. G. BENTHAM ON GRAMINE. 23 
flowering glumes, leaving the intervening portion either attached 
to the glume next above it, when it is usually described as a callus 
proceeding from the glume, or to the glume next below it, when 
it is often half concealed between the keels of the palea and taken 
no notice of; or if it be a continuation of the rhachilla above the 
last glume, it is often termed a neuter or abortive flower. The 
cases where the flowering glume really detaches itself ultimately 
from the inarticulate and persistent rhachilla are very few, chiefly 
in several species of Eragrostis, where the glume and caryopsis 
fall away, leaving the palea and floral axis persistent on the rha- 
chilla. In some cases the apparently terminal fruiting glume 
enclosing the palea and caryopsis falls away without any percep- 
tible portion of the rhachilla above or below it; but that arises 
from the disarticulation taking place so close under it that the 
fragment carried off is only that minute portion actually em- 
braced by the base of the glume. 
The homology of the glumes of Graminew, whether empty 
or flowering, with those of Cyperacez: may now be considered 
as generally admitted ; and a total absence of perianth in the 
former order might not be regarded as improbable when we have 
traced in Cyperacewe its gradual reduction from the regular hexa- 
merous perianth of Oreobolus to its absolute deficiency in Cyperus 
and others. But we have in Graminew a new element on the 
floral axis below the stamens and pistil or actual flower, in the 
palea and lodicules, for which we cannot at once find any parallel 
in other orders, and which have been very variously accounted 
for. They have very recently been the subject of a very able 
paper in Engler's * Botanische Jahrbücher’ (i. p. 336) by Pro- 
fessor Hackel of Vienna. He comes to the conclusion that the 
palea and the pair of lodieules (when two only) are each of them 
single, moreor less bifid, organs, and that they and the third lodicule, 
when present, must be regarded as two or three bracteoles inserted 
alternately fore and aft on the floral axis below the flower. And 
he has made out a good case in favour of his view, but perhaps 
not an unanswerable one. The first objection that strikes one is 
that the difficulty of finding any homologues in other orders is 
by no means diminished. In other orders where bracteoles do 
exist below the flower, they are usually lateral with reference to 
the main axis, not fore and aft, never more than two, unless when 
representing a continuation, as it were, of the sepals, and never 
developed, to my knowledge, when the perianth is suppressed; 
